The Alpha of the 13th District

She backed up slowly, her eyes adjusting to the dark, when she suddenly heard a voice.

Deep. Dangerous. Terrifying.

"I told you not to come here, Kiera."

She froze.

That voice didn't echo like a scolding. It cut like a blade sharpened by memory. Then slowly, from the shadows by the door, Asher stepped forward.

His eyes were no longer pure gold. There was a black ring around the iris. A haunting ring of darkness that wasn't there before.

As if something was awake inside him. As if something else was peering into Asher's very soul.

"Since when do you watch me from the shadows?" Kiera snapped, clutching her glowing palm. "Since when do you keep things like this?"

Asher didn't answer right away.

He stopped in front of the table where the feather had burned. He looked there-silent, as if mourning.

Then he looked at her, his expression unreadable.

"What happened in District 13, Asher?"

His jaw tightened.

"Tell me," she said, her voice rising. "Or I swear to the moon, I'll go to the council myself-"

"Then you'll kill me faster than any of them can."

Kiera's mouth parted. "That's not a denial."

"No," Asher whispered. "It's a warning."

The room felt smaller.

As if the darkness was consuming them.

As if every word carried a weight that could shatter their world.

"District 13 didn't fall because of rogues," he said in a voice low and tight. "It fell because something ancient... awakened in a boy who wasn't supposed to live."

"You."

He nodded slowly.

"They weren't hunting a pack," he added. They were hunting me.

They smelled what I was becoming.

And I didn't walk out of the massacre, Kiera-I unleashed it."

"Then tell me what the hell are you?" Her voice trembled, unsure if it was fear or heartbreak bleeding through.

He raised his hand-and she had a premonition that he would approach her.

But she couldn't dodge it.

He took one step.

Then another.

His hand reached for hers and wrapped around her wrist.

When their skin touched, the rune in her palm pulsed harder,

almost as if reacting to him.

"You think you're marrying a man," Asher said, low, broken, raw. "But you're not."

He looked into her eyes-there was no mask now. No charm. No control.

"You're marrying a weapon."

She tried to pull away-but something in her refused.

Something needed to hear this.

"You don't know what it's like," he whispered. "to drown in your own blood, to hear your mother scream once, and know that's the last time she'll ever say your name. To feel your bones betray you-becoming something else, something ancient,

something cursed."

Kiera swallowed hard.

"They burned my village to erase what I was turning into," he said.

"Only one of us survived...

and I wish it hadn't been me."

He paused. Then, even softer he continued. "But the nightmare didn't end there, Kiera. It followed me.Woke up with me. If the council finds out what I am, they won't just kill me, Kiera. They'll use me-until I become what the massacre made me."

Behind him, a soft rustle. Like wings brushing stone. And on the floor, unnoticed by either of them, a second feather.

This one white.

And burning slowly into ash.

Council Arena.

Cold, circular stone coliseum lit only by the full moon.

The Elders sit masked, silent, above. Kiera and Asher stand below-center of judgment. The silence was louder than the growl in Kiera's throat.

Even the stars in the sky seemed to be watching, curious about the fate that would befall them both.

The air was cold. As if demanding blood in exchange for each breath.

Asher stood beside her-tall, unreadable, like a statue carved from shadow.

She didn't look at him. Not yet.

Not after what she'd learned.

The Council Elders sat high on their stone thrones, masked in bone and gold. You couldn't tell where their mercy lay-if they had any mercy left at all.

Then a booming voice, ancient and final:

"By decree of the Five Moons, the Trial of Mates shall begin."

Murmurs erupted from the wolves around the arena's rim. Dozens of packs-watching. Judging.

Kiera's fists clenched at her side.

"You stand here not as lovers," one Elder intoned, "but as possible leaders. You seek to be bonded by Luna's Rite but a bond untested is a blade unsheathed."

Asher finally turned to her-slowly, cautiously.

His hand brushed hers. A gesture.

An offer.

Kiera flinched. It felt as if her skin was burned by his simple touch.

He noticed. Of course he did.

But he didn't pull away. He stood still.

Like he deserved it.

"Marriage," one of the Elders said, voice like stone grinding against stone, "is not a bond here. It's a weapon."

Kiera's eyes burned.

She whispered low, not looking at him: "I don't even know who I'm fighting beside."

Asher didn't speak.

But she saw his jaw clench. His fists curl. His breath slow.

Let it hurt.

A second Elder stood.

"One for truth. One for power.

One for loyalty. One for fate. And the last... for blood."

Kiera's heartbeat thundered in her chest. She was a warrior, a Luna heir, trained for anything-except this kind of war.

The kind that demanded her heart and broke it in public.

"Trial One begins now."

A heavy stone door began to open behind them, creaking slowly, revealing only darkness.

"You will enter the Wyrm Forest," the Elder continued. "You must survive together for three nights."

The crowd stirred.

Wyrm Forest.

Sacred.

Haunted.

A place no wolf entered unless they were ready to never return.

"But that forest is forbidden," Kiera hissed. "It was sealed after the disappearances-"

"As were your secrets," the Elder cut back. "Balance must be restored."

Asher didn't move. His silence cut deeper than any roar.

Then the Elder leaned forward, voice dropping like poison:

"Be warned... the forest is not as empty as it once was."

And for the first time-Kiera felt fear crawl beneath her skin.

What do they mean?

What's been unleashed?

The stone beneath her feet shifted slightly as the arena pulsed with ancient magic.

Bats scattered from the trees. Wolves stilled.

The Elder raised one clawed hand to the moonlight.

"Let the hunt begin."

The wind changed.

And from the tree line beyond the stone gates eyes began to flicker.

Dozens. Maybe more. Not wolves.

Not quite.

Kiera instinctively reached for the dagger strapped to her thigh.

Asher stepped forward. "Stay close."

She shot him a glare. "Don't give me orders."

But despite the anger in her voice,

She moved closer.

Because something out there was watching them.

And it wasn't just the council anymore.

"The trial isn't about proving your love," the Elder said one last time, voice echoing into the dark.

"It's about surviving it."

As Kiera steps through the forest gate, something moves in the trees-too tall to be a wolf, too fast to be human.

A whisper rides the wind:

"Not all who enter... leave as themselves."

Inside the Wyrm Forest, the second night of the trial.

Silent, but not safe. The trees seemed to breathe, and the earth-as if it held the memory of blood.

The surroundings were quiet, but it wasn't peace. It was the kind of silence accompanied by fear, the kind where the forest itself seemed to wait for you to make a mistake.

Kiera and Asher walked silently. Their clothes were wet, Kiera's arm was stained with blood. Asher had a cut above his eyebrow.

Both were tired, both were wounded, both distrusted each other.

No one spoke.

Until Kiera heard her own voice-weak but full of resentment.

"Did you bring me here to fight beside you, or to watch me bleed?"

Asher didn't answer.

He only stopped for a moment, looked at her, but immediately looked away.

Before she could speak again, they heard something.

A whimper from the left.

Low. As if in pain.

Kiera looked.

Between two twisted trees, something was crawling-a small wolf. Wounded, trembling.

"Wait..." she whispered. "That's a pup."

She approached it immediately, but Asher blocked her.

"Kiera, no."

Too late.

From the darkness, four rogue wolves attacked.

There was no time to think.

Kiera held the pup and shielded it, her body serving as protection.

The first swipe hit her shoulder. She recoiled, but didn't let go of the pup.

The second attack-hit her side.

Asher drew his blade, jumped in front of them and engaged one of the rogues.

But two, still focused on her.

Even wounded, Kiera fought.

She kicked, punched, and used the small dagger she carried.

But there were too many of them. They were too fast. Until she was thrown.

Her back hit the hard tree. She dropped her dagger. Her body slid down the tree root, which felt like iron.

Her vision went dark. She fell. And lost consciousness.

From the middle of the clearing, a cold energy spread.

The rogues stopped. The trees fell silent. And the wind, froze.

Asher stood in the middle.

He didn't move.

But his eyes-were no longer gold. There were purple. There was fire. And the roots on his skin crawled like ink. Rotating, alive, exuding shadows.

The rogues felt something strange.

He was no longer the Alpha they knew.

He was something they didn't understand.

Shadows bled from the earth, wrapping around him like a cloak of night. And in a low voice-a language whispered

It wasn't the language of wolves.

It wasn't the language of humans.

It was older.

Darker.

More powerful.

"If anyone touches her again, I'll bury this trial in darkness."

Energy erupted from Asher's body.

Three rogues were thrown into the air and fell, bloody but alive.

Asher didn't move. But his shadow fought for him.

The last rogue ran. Trembling.

His eyes widened. "Asher Navarro," he said. "It's you..."

Asher ignored him.

He approached Kiera.

He knelt.

As Asher knelt, the purple fire from his eyes slowly faded.

He reached for her hand. Slowly. As if afraid to touch her.

"Kiera..." he whispered softly.

He supported her head, brushed the hair from her cheek, and gently rested it on his chest.

He remained bowed for a moment,

looking at the wound on the side of her lip, her eyes still closed.

"Wake up," he whispered again, even though Kiera couldn't hear him, then gently caressed his lover's cheek.

In one motion, Asher lifted her as if she was something made of glass and grief too easy to break, too precious to lose.

The shadows around them calmed.

The trees seemed to bow.

Asher stood. Carrying Kiera. He continued walking.